The political trajectory of one-time governor of Anambra State and Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, remains a riveting stuff that still awes many political watchers. Though his reign as governor was short-lived, his tenure witnessed the most brazen assault on the country’s burgeoning democratic culture. Interestingly, his ‘abductors’ nay political godfathers then, still play less than salutary roles in the nation’s wobbly match to democratic sanity. While one is a ranking senator in the 8th Senate with a juicy committee chairmanship to boot, the other, who happens to be the chief protagonist of the Ngige abduction saga is battling tooth and nail to unseat a brother he labels an interloper on a seat that rightly belongs to him. Some odd nine or more years back, you would not blame Ngige if he had forgotten so soon that the current Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, then Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, became a major casualty of that power game. For daring to write former President Olusegun Obasanjo to halt the sickening madness in Anambra by calling those behind Ngige’s humiliation to order, Ogbeh was forced to resign as chairman of the erstwhile ‘Africa’s biggest political party’ whilst the two brothers became more emboldened to exhibit a benumbing political rascality that defies logical reasoning.
Understanding the background of Ngige’s progress in the murky waters of Nigeria’s political landscape is an imperative in this narrative. With his experience, it is logical to expect that this should ordinarily ennoble him to work for the enthronement of credible democratic ethos in the polity. His triumph over the boisterous triumphalism of Obasanjo and the Uba brothers should inspire him to work for the people irrespective of race, tribe or religion. His emergence as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after losing a critical senatorial election to Mrs Uche Ekwunife is, in itself, symbolic. Providence has always placed Ngige in good stead. The gods have always cracked his palm kernels for him. Like many others, the raging fire could have consumed him in those days of long knives when Obasanjo had a stranglehold on the soul of the PDP and the nation. Instead, he emerged stronger from the wicked taunts of those baying for his blood.
Today, Nigige is perched on a seat with an arduous responsibility to transform thousands if not millions of lives who daily forage for fate in a pauperised economic climate. Clearly, if the change mantra of the President Muhammadu Buhari led All Progressives Congress would have any meaningful impact to the teeming band of unemployed, employable and non-employable Nigerians, then Ngige would have to do more than he is presently doing as Minister of Labour and Employment.
Unfortunately, Chris Ngige seems to be operating in the realm of political adventurism, struggling to silence the crying reality that confronts him daily. He seems not to understand the enormity of the task before him as a minister occupying such a critical ministry in a regime that vows to do things differently. If the truth must be told, aside the noise-in-the-marketplace media trial of some of yesterday’s men, the business of governance has not changed dramatically to arouse any hope. In a recent interview with The SUN, Ngige spoke glowingly about the government’s plans to elevate the status of the unemployed. Vowing that the administration would not “give N5000 for people to go and sit down at home and be sleeping; we won’t give the money to loafers and indolent persons”, he explained that, instead, the controversial N500bn Special Intervention Fund would be used to service a three-pronged programme that would convert many professionals to teachers.
According to him, those that would benefit from the “pink and blue collar jobs” initiative would be trained in “mining, agricultural development/farming, rice, tomato cultivation, palm tree development so that we stop the importation of rice, palm oil and even tomato puree. We are going into fish farming, bee and honey development programmes. The pink-collar jobs are the service providers from those who acquire service skills. Among them are computer, GSM phones repairers, cake bakers, mechatronics, hairdressing and barbers.”
You just cannot help but wonder if the APC is not pushing its luck beyond an acceptable minimum. Hypocrisy has been the watchword ever since critics challenged the Federal Government to implement its electoral promise of providing N5000 stipends to the unemployed in the country. Even if economic realities compel it to renege on its promise to provide some sort of social security funding for millions of unemployed youth, common sense dictates that the Federal Government should come clean instead of dribbling round the matter. It is, therefore, sheer political escapism for an experienced hand like Ngige to wail about the dearth of white-collar jobs when this government has woefully failed to address a pervading culture of shameless nepotism and favouritism in employment process in the country. If I may ask, is Ngige claiming ignorance of the civil service not-so-hidden secret that only the sons and daughters of the high and mighty routinely make the employment list of viable ministries, departments and agencies while equally qualified but poor citizens wait on the wings ad-infinitum for an invitation for a job interviews by the same MDAs? Question is: Why reserve the few available slots for the wards of the same fleecing elite like it was revealed in a recent story by an online medium. As Minister of Labour and Employment, Ngige ought to be petulantly indignant that millions of qualified Nigerians were daily being denied their rights for gainful employment by a corrosive anachronistic system that cuddles nepotism with glee. Quite sadly, he is busy waddling in political escapism and window-dressing.
Bluntly put, there is nothing new in his ‘pink and blue collar jobs’ initiative. It is a poor copy and a needless duplication of the responsibilities of the National Directorate of Employment. Ngige is probably expecting Nigerians to beat the drums of celebration just because he revealed that the NDE would coordinate part of the programme. Well, here is the missing link. Many of these persons would have loved to compete on a level-playing field with those who get their letters of employment in the comfort of their homes. Instead of a peripheral gesture of a training programme that compels them to become emergency teachers and artisans, they would want the Ministry of Labour and Employment to develop a template where the system would no longer breed officers who shamelessly demand huge monetary gratification for jobs placement. Or is Ngige not aware that under-the-table employment cartel has taken over the MDAs and that these jobs are being sold to the highest bidders daily?
You know what? I laughed when Ngige whined that it is only the wailing wailers and supporters of the defeated PDP that are unhappy with the ruling government. In fact, I guffawed with relish when he dismissed the claim that Nigerians are becoming increasingly angry over the hardship in the land. “I don’t know what you mean by hardship and those you call Nigerians. Are they the federal civil servants getting their monthly salaries as and when due? We do not owe them, not even allowances and there is no reason they should be unhappy with the APC government.
Are the Okada riders among those complaining when they are making brisk businesses or the graduates? We will soon address their problem of unemployment after the passage of the budget.” He quipped.
So, all is well with Nigeria as long as Okada riders make brisk business, federal workers earn their pay as at when due and graduates get soaked in pink and blue collar jobs. Is that the Labour Minister’s antidote to the ravaging hardship plaguing the land? If this is not pedestrian illogic, then what is? It reminds of Dr. Moses Kpakol who, as Economic Adviser to President Obasanjo, projected that the nation’s economy was buoyant because Nigerians could be seen with expensive phones making GSM calls! Such baloney! It is, to say the least, tragic that Ngige does not know that we, the hailing hailers, have technically joined the wailing wailers if that would make Buhari sit up to his responsibilities. Yes, the same Nigerians who are riotously riled about stories of the humongous larceny of our immediate past are justifiably petrified about the seeming indolence of the Buhari administration to steer the ship of state from an impending wreck with its docile acquiescence to the same rot that got us into this mess.
With his wealth of experience, shouldn’t Ngige know when to come off the high horse of political adventurism and face the stark realities of governance? When will Buhari’s men sit their butts down to walk their talk instead of blaming former President Goodluck Jonathan for the clear and present dangers that threaten the nation’s wellbeing? When will they stop living in the past?
